Whole Foods seeks approval for signs at Colonie Center

Grocery chain needs special exemption

Workers install steel beams for the new facade of Whole Foods at the south end of Colonie Center Thursday afternoon, Feb. 20, 2014, in Colonie, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Workers install steel beams for the new facade of Whole Foods at the south end of Colonie Center Thursday afternoon, Feb. 20, 2014, in Colonie, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

Whole Foods seeks approval for signs at Colonie Center

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Colonie

Whole Foods has to go to the town's Sign Review Board to get permission for two signs on Colonie Center.

The town's Building Department rejected the signs as not in compliance with town code, so the supermarket chain is seeking a special exemption for its first Capital Region market.

Whole Foods plans to open this spring in a corner of the mall that previously was part of Sears.

The proposed wall signs are 160 square feet and would be 48 feet 3 inches high. The town code limits signs to 75 square feet in size and 20 feet high. Usually, businesses are limited to a single sign.

It is not unusual for the board to approve larger signs and greater heights. In recent months, Price Chopper gained permission for a larger sign at its Loudonville store that is slated for renovations and expansion, and the Home 2 Suites by Hilton recently gained approval for two bigger signs at the hotel it plans near the Beltrone Living Center.

Lisa Tymchyn, account manager for Saxton Sign Corp., said the store is seeking two signs on the building because it will not be listed on the outside sign that lists some of the larger tenants in the mall. One of Whole Foods' signs would face Central Avenue, while the other would be visible from Wolf Road. "They'd have no other real identification there if they weren't on both sides," she said.

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Unlike the Price Chopper and Home 2 Suites cases, there have been no objections raised so far to Whole Foods' signs, Tymchyn said. Town spokeswoman Sara Wiest agreed the town has not heard any concerns about the signs. While the Whole Foods signs are larger than the town code permits, Tymchyn said they are not especially large compared to others on Colonie Center.

"Almost any sign that is going on a grocery store or a big box store is going to be beyond that 20 feet," Wiest said. "It is a routine matter."